Interview: Marc Atkinson
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Interview: 17th February 2026
Ahead of the release of his upcoming solo album Voices (review coming soon), I spent some time in the company of singer songwriter Marc Atkinson. We discussed his life in music, his time in Gabriel, Riversea, Nine Stones Close and Moon Halo, plus his inspiration behind some of his new material.
Hotel Hobbies: You have been making music for a long time now. You have been a front man, singer songwriter and guitarist. What first drew you to music and do you think there are early influences that still echo in your work today?
Marc Atkinson: Definitely. Well, my musical journey started at school when I met Bryan Josh and Liam Davison, who were both later with Mostly Autumn. I grew up and went to school with both of them. Brian was always musical anyway. When I was about thirteen, we got a band together because I was the only one that dared sing. That'd be 1983, 1984 time. That's when we made our first band. Straight away, we were trying to write songs rather than just copy other people's songs. We very rarely did covers. So I have always had that songwriting drive and that joy of music has been with me since then. It never left. I've never grown up in other words. My influences at that time were bands like Bon Jovi, Foreigner and Rainbow. I always liked the ballads so I had influences there. I’m quite eclectic in my taste; it’s all over the place.
Hotel Hobbies: When did you realise music is what you wanted to devote your life to and knew your were a good singer?
Marc Atkinson: Gosh, I don't know. I can't listen to my early demos and stuff from those days because I sound dreadful to myself now (laughing). I have definitely tried to improve as a singer. I think that's the thing, I'm always trying to do better. I want to try and make each album better than the last one. That drive and joy of creating music is still there, that joy of creating music. It's lasted me all my life. As I said, I always think it's like I've never grown up, really. I just wanted to sing all my life and I have managed to do that and keep playing and gigging, as well as having that creative side. I pride myself in still having that buzz. The CDs for my new album are due to be delivered on Friday and I can’t wait.
Hotel Hobbies: If we look back to some of your earlier work, there were a few bands before 2000 but one that some people may know you from is Gabriel. What are your memories of that period?
Marc Atkinson: Wow. Well, that was back in 2000 with the Gabriel album, Ascension. My memory of it is a lot of friendship because we all got on. In a band, there are always going to be clashes when you have five or six people together but in that band, we never really had big band politics. We always got on really well. My memories of it is playing with Andy Seddon, who suddenly passed away ten years ago now, which is a crazy thing. He was only forty-six when he died but he was there right from the beginning. Before that, he was in Expressions and also Frontier with me. I also remember working with Andy ‘Rob’ Swan which I still do. I've known him since school as well and he's still one of my best friends and we co-write together when we get a chance. I think with Gabriel, it was essentially the first time I had a proper CD that we could sell! That was an accomplishment. It was a good time, definitely.
Hotel Hobbies: You were also with Nine Stones Close for two albums, which is quite different because of Adrian’s writing. I love both albums but Traces in particular. It is still one of my favourite albums by the band.
Marc Atkinson: Yeah, I agree. I love the first one I was on especially. It is interesting because what happened there was Adrian Jones knew Brendan Eyre – who was with Riversea with me – and he had sent some music over to Brendan for him to play on. Brendan sent it to me just to say, oh, look, what I'm working on - this instrumental stuff. But Brendan has learned that you can never send me an instrumental because I'll just sing all over it. That's basically what I did without being asked (laughing). I sang over a track called Falling to Pieces and wrote a lyric. Brendan loved it and he sent it on to Adrian and said look what Mark's done! Adrian loved it and got in touch to ask if I would do more. I said, yeah, just send me some lyrics and music over and I'll try and find melodies to your lyrics and fit them into what the music is. I really enjoyed it because it's being creative but it is even easier when the music is already done! It's like a jigsaw. I really enjoyed that process with him. I enjoyed the next album too.
It was the first time I've ever been paid for something with a car! Adrian was moving to the Netherlands and he had a Saab that was broken down outside his house, which was down south. After I did the sessions, he asked if I wanted the car because he knew I was struggling with my car. So we got a trailer, drove it down there and picked it up, brought it back and it was a great car. It lasted me a couple of years. It was really good. That was my payment from Nine Stones Close. Brilliant.
Hotel Hobbies: You mentioned Brendan Eyre with whom you formed Riversea. What makes Riversea different to other things you have done?
Marc Atkinson: Brendan, definitely. I think he's a genius. I love his music. Brendan is another person that I knew from gigging in the Hartlepool - where he lives - in the early 2000s. I'd seen him at gigs and I didn't realise he played. Once, at the end of a gig, he came up to me and asked if I would listen to a CD of instrumentals he had written. I loved it because it had that drifty, mellow stuff. He's just got a great way of creating mood. The first music that I sang to and the first song that I created over Brendan's music was Out of an Ancient World, which is the last song on the first Riversea album. It is still one of my favourites of everything I've done actually. It worked so well that we thought we should do more.
Hotel Hobbies: It must fill you with confidence when you produce a song as good as that one the first time.
Marc Atkinson: Definitely. I loved getting everything he would send. Not everything worked. There is always a B folder but most of the it was just brilliant. I loved it as a songwriter. When it is just me sat here with an acoustic guitar trying to come up with something, its so difficult. Brendan’s music is gorgeous and creates different worlds.
Hotel Hobbies: Most recently you have Moon Halo, which has a very varied palette. When that group came together, did you think you were tapping into something a bit different?
Marc Atkinson: Yeah, definitely. I think what happened was that Riversea ended after the time I wanted to do some gigs. It didn't work out and Brendan wanted to go a different way. It's a shame but it's just what happened. With Moon Halo, I had known David Clements for about thirty years. He's an amazing bass player and has a studio and the technical ability. We did it all down at his place. We also have Alex Cromarty on drums and Martin Ledger on guitar who both played on the last Riversea album. All I was missing was a keyboard player. I've known Ian Jennings for since early nineties. He was in an early version of Gabriel and I've done lots of gigs with him. He's a great guy.
Moon Halo happened so fast. It was 2020 when the first one came out. So that was two years from it starting the whole project to the album coming out. The difference between Riversea and Moon Halo is Ian Jennings because he's all over the place with his influences, which is great. We do have a varied palette with Moon Halo but that's on purpose really. I think the only problem we found with the first album and the second, and probably all of them to a certain extent, is that it is such a wide palette that it's really hard to give you one song and say, that’s what Moon Halo sound like. You get a totally different idea of what Moon Halo is, depending on what track you listen to.
Hotel Hobbies: I think it makes it interesting. Do you think Moon Halo will ever be able to play live?
Marc Atkinson: Well, it is the dream because I'd love to go out and play live with the band. Unfortunately, logistics and money mean we would lose money. None of us are in the business for money but it would be hard just to lose it. If we were millionaires or we had suddenly won a hundred grand on lottery, I'd be like, let's book a tour guys. Let's just go and if we lose money, it doesn't bloody matter because we didn't have it to begin with. Just for the experience of playing live with that band would be amazing. I wanted to do with it with Riversea. We nearly got there but it just fell the last hurdle. So I definitely want to do that with Moon Halo. Dave, Alex and Martin and Ian all live within the York area. I'm in Cumbria, but I go over to York all the time because I'm from York.
Hotel Hobbies: You play in and around the York area with your intimate acoustic shows. How does it feel to connect with people in that personal way?
Marc Atkinson: Well, just gigging by myself on the acoustic is something I love. I've done it for so long that it is a big part of who I am really. It is my job so that gives me my income, which is amazing. I always thought if I told my younger self at school, when you grow up, you're going to play gigs for a living and you're going to get paid for it I'd be quite happy with that. I'd like it to be on a bigger scale, obviously. That'd be amazing. But the very fact that I'm still doing it and still enjoying it and I get the buzz is great. My favourite sound is the sound of people singing along at gigs. I absolutely love it when it's all happening and you can hear the whole room singing with you. It's an amazing feeling.
Sometimes its hard when you are on your own. There are times when people aren’t the best crowds and you have to win them round. It's a lonely and sometimes knackering job though because I'm on my own a lot just driving, so I listen to a lot of podcasts and a lot of music. The gigging side I still get a lot of fun from though. I went full time in 1989 with my band; we were on the Enterprise Allowance Scheme and got forty quid a week. We were gigging and playing clubs and stuff. That was my learning curve of doing it for a living and living out each of the pockets. When all that broke up in the early nineties, I didn't want to get a normal job!
I initially went on the club circuit singing to backing tracks in working men’s clubs, which wasn’t me at all. But I learned how to sing loads of different songs and learn how to interact with the crowd. I didn’t like singing with backing tracks because it’s the same every single night. It can drag you down. I used to get my guitar out and do one or two just on the acoustic. I started looking for more gigs where I was just using my acoustic guitar. When I did my last backing track gig, I burnt my mini-discs with all the backing tracks on to make sure I never, ever could do that again.
Hotel Hobbies: You mentioned about playing on a bigger scale and based on your songs and voice, you deserve that. Do you still feel that challenge would be interesting should it happen?
Marc Atkinson: It's so relative, isn't it? It's funny because you never know something might take off with Voices. You never know. A guy making a film might hear one of my songs and think it would suit a place in the film. My dreams of world stardom have not disappeared (laughing). I'm still working on it with every album. Having said that, I do music because I love writing music. I think that's what it boils down to. It's not about money because I don't make loads of money doing the music. My money comes from doing my gigs and when I eventually get money from CD sales. Once everything's been paid off, there’s not much left! So I don't do it for money, not even remotely. I just do it with the joy of being creative and getting that finished product every few years. It’s amazing to know that some people love what I do. I managed to keep livestream gigs going through COVID and people donated then. Its beautiful to find people who enjoy my music. I do wish more people could hear my music though.
Hotel Hobbies: Coming right up to date, you are about to release your latest solo album, Voices. You have been so prolific over the years, how do you decide which song might be right for which project?
Marc Atkinson: Yes, Voices will be out soon but I am always thinking about what I am going to write next because I always have ideas on the go. Anything from right now is potentially Moon Halo 4 material. I would love to carry on doing that.
Hotel Hobbies: Diving into Voices itself – thank you for sending it advance - there are several points on the album where there are spoken word sections like something speaking directly to you.
Marc Atkinson: Yeah, it's my interaction with Maurizio. He's been a follower of my music since the Gabriel day and he always got in touch from Italy. I've always responded to him. He's always so encouraging with everything. He's just been a really great supporter of what I do. So he's always said, I am a drummer and I'd love to do some stuff for you. He asked I could send him the last Moon Halo album without the drums do he could just try but Dave had all the files and it would be tricky. But I told him I was working on some new stuff that I could send. So he recorded drums for the Heart & Soul album and did a great job.
He would leave me voicemails on my Facebook, on my messenger and he's so passionate as he talks and I just loved it. I had that long intro for Where Do I Begin? and he's ringing me saying these songs are great and he's encouraging me to carry on. I won’t try and do an Italian accent but it's so beautiful the way he talks. I couldn't resist putting them on the album. He had no idea I was going to do that. I love sound bites anyway. I loved having all those bits on the Riversea and Moon Halo albums. So Voices was the obvious title for the album. It stood out straight away.
Hotel Hobbies: That opening song, Where Do I Being? is about your writing songs and the difficulty that sometimes comes with the process.
Marc Atkinson: Yeah, exactly. The opening songs on my albums are usually self-reflective. They're always about what's happening to me there and then in a very literal way. It is all about finding a better lyric and music. So the ironic, self-aware quality was deliberate. It's very Floyd and atmospheric at the beginning which I love.
Hotel Hobbies: Even during that opening track you are pushing yourself to be better with the last line mentioning the next song you write will be the best of your life.
Marc Atkinson: Exactly. Whatever the next song is going to be, its got to be the best song ever. That's my mission statement right there.
Hotel Hobbies: The title track, Voices, is all about that interaction with a crowd that you mentioned previously.
Marc Atkinson: Yeah, definitely. That'd be my ideal song to play to others at the beginning of the night. People are encouraging me and then by the second chorus, everyone's singing along. It's another literal song from my experience of going out and gigging all the time.
Hotel Hobbies: Over the years you have written a number of songs about relationships both good and bad. All Out Of Love is one of those that explores the bad.
Marc Atkinson: Yeah, there's the hard side of relationships in there as well. You cannot just write love songs all the time. This one isn’t about me. It doesn’t come from own experiences which is why it is in the third person. I wanted to get in the feeling of hopelessness. Sometimes you've got to put the heartbreak in there too. There's got to be a combination of light and shade.
Hotel Hobbies: Talking of shade, Say It Isn’t So tackles your feelings about Donald Trump. It is completely different in subject. One of my favourites on the album.
Marc Atkinson: Thank you! That's one of Tam's favourites as well, actually. You can’t help seeing the headlines or listen to political podcasts – which I listen to so I’m not listening to prog all the time! – and not be influenced by it. It's just a dreadful situation to have someone like Trump in charge and be the most powerful man in the world. It is unbelievable that could happen.
Hotel Hobbies: Twice!
Marc Atkinson: Yes, exactly. The stuff he gets away with! If you'd have said twenty years ago we are going to write a movie about someone who will take over America and the government but be a complete deceiver and a felon you would never have believed it. I can't help but be influenced by real life things and my fears about things, And that's what it is. So it's definitely about my fear because I've always had that fear of Armageddon and everything like that. That's been with me a long time and in my songs for a long time as well.
Hotel Hobbies: Do songs of that nature allow an outlet for those sort of feelings and concerns?
Marc Atkinson: Oh yes. It is therapeutic; there's no doubt about that. I'd go mad if I didn't write songs. I would. Honestly, it's my way of releasing. I'm quite a stressless person in a lot of ways. You get moody and whatever, everybody does. But I'm not a stressful person. I think a lot of that is because I'm song writing. I remember many times doing a gig and singing where I felt a great release of suppressed emotions. You can vent and sing in a good way. I'd be lost without it.
Hotel Hobbies: Home is a track that deals with driving round the country to gigs as you mentioned and also getting home and how much Tam means to you.
Marc Atkinson: Tam always gets at least three or four songs an album because she's amazing. She's my rock. She keeps me going. I literally can't wait to get home because I can't wait to go home to her and be home together. Yeah, she's been amazing and she helps me so much with my music side and the CD sending side. She is already writing envelopes for the Voices CD to be distributed when they arrive.
Hotel Hobbies: At the end of the album you have two songs – The Future Starts Tonight and The Here and The Now – that work in tandem with their message about taking new chances and not wasting the time we have.
Marc Atkinson: You've got to make the most of every day. I know it sounds like a cliché but it's true. You've got to, and I think a lot of my songwriting is me telling myself that as well. You've got to make the most of each moment. I know it's hard to do that every day and we sometimes take stuff for granted and fall back into a routine. You need to make the most of everything and I hope that comes across. Have you got any other favourite songs from the new one yet?
Hotel Hobbies: Say It Isn’t So would be one, as would The Here and The Now and also The Maze. When I first hear an album that I know I will be writing about, I play it through two or three times – I think albums should be listened to in this way. Then start listening to tracks individually to help me pick out details and I start hearing more each time. So my favourites do change.
Marc Atkinson: That’s a good thing. I always think that if people only have one favourite it means I only have one good song. I do think different songs take different times to grow. I think those ones have longevity. I am really pleased with the album and it has been great to get Enya and Tam on backing vocals too. That was a joy.
Hotel Hobbies: I have listened to it loud through speakers but I think it works particularly well as late night album on headphones.
Marc Atkinson: That’s great. It does get mellow towards the end so The Future Starts Tonight was almost written to order to go after So Far Away to pick up the mood again. I did not want people to think it was just another slow one again. I see people dancing to that one.
Hotel Hobbies: Regarding the music you listen to now, what do you enjoy?
Marc Atkinson: I have a really eclectic taste. I have always been a big fan of Justin Curry of Del Amitri and Crowded House. Marc Cohn was always an influence vocally as was Paul Carrick and Genesis, especially with Phil Collins. I got more into Peter Gabriel’s solo stuff. We play lots of mixes and I like the randomness of the different styles of songs. I like all sorts of stuff really such as Ed Sheeran's new album. I think he's brilliant as a songwriter and his vocals are amazing. It might be because I love the fact that he’s one man with an acoustic guitar. I am looking forward to the new Neal Morse Band album and the new Big Big Train album is on my birthday list.
Hotel Hobbies: You have worked with many people, who would be on your dream collaboration list?
Marc Atkinson: Wow, that's a nice question. I would love to say Justin Curry. I would also love to put the ultimate band together. It’s funny because if I had limitless money to ask people I would still have Dave Clements on bass and Alex Cromarty on drums. They have played on all those albums together but never played live together, which is crazy. They are great musicians but also two of my best friends. Ian's amazing and so is Martin so in a way, I've already got my dream band together. I'd love to sing with Marc Cohn or Paul Carrick and just sit down and jam with them and see what happened.
Hotel Hobbies: And just to end, looking back over all this time, what do you think the most valuable lesson you have learned as a musician?
Marc Atkinson: Wow. If, I think back to when I used to busk with Bry and Liam, we used to go out on the streets of York with our acoustics and sing Crowded House, The Beatles and Floyd, all sorts of stuff. We were busking near the Viking Centre. Can you believe we had busking down there? I don't think you can get away with that now. We were playing away and this guy walked past us all and said, practice, practice, practice and carried on walking. He was right, though. That is probably the best advice you ever get. The more you do it, the better you get it. That is really true and you've got to stick with it. I don’t think I am an amazing guitarist; I am very meat and potatoes but I have kept at it. I've learned and kept learning.
Hotel Hobbies: Thank you so much for taking the time to speak with me Marc. I have really enjoyed listening to the album. Good luck with it when it comes out.
Marc Atkinson: Thank you so much. It’s been great.
Voices will be released digitally on 6th March and is also available to order on CD here.
My review of the album is coming soon.
Marc Atkinson online
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